1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an information processing system, a service providing apparatus and method, an information processing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program and, more particularly, to an information processing system, a service providing apparatus and method, an information processing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program for use in remotely controlling real devices by operating icons in a virtual space.
2. Background Art
A variety of methods have been proposed for remotely controlling electrical household appliances.
For example, Japanese Patent laid-open No. 2002-44765 discloses a system controlling, via the Internet, the electrical household appliances connected to a home network. For example, Japanese Patent No. 3016350 discloses an application program for personal computers using an agent for the interface for the remote control of electrical household appliances.
For the programs for remotely controlling electrical household appliances by using personal computers via a network, UPnP, Jini, and HAVi are known, for example. These programs are middleware, and the user interface, which is operated by users for controlling their electrical household appliances, depends on other software programs using the middleware such as UPnP.
On the other hand, a method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-154966, for example, in which a plurality of users simultaneously participate in a virtual space built on a computer network represented by the Internet, thereby realizing realtime communication.
These software programs which provide user interfaces for the remote control of electrical household appliances have only the functions of controlling electrical household appliances, namely, practicality, in many cases. Therefore, such software programs present a problem that they cannot satisfy the needs of users who demand not only practicality but also amusement on the software programs of their personal computers.
Technologies which enable communication within a virtual spaces also present a problem of lack of close communication between users as communication is achieved by users' entering public, not private, spaces.